


Strategizing Stooges

by Larathia



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 01:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larathia/pseuds/Larathia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief piece right before entering Cyan's Nightmare to face the Dream Stooges. Done as a character piece more than anything else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strategizing Stooges

They stood around Cyan's prone form. Setzer couldn't resist poking him with whatever came to hand, apparently fascinated that no matter how sharp or dull or hot or cold the object was, the samurai just wasn't going to wake up.

"We should follow those...spirits?" Terra said, guessing at the best word. "If they have Cyan's soul then he isn't going to wake up until we get it back."

Celes, out of patience, swatted Setzer's hand before he could try shallow cuts in Cyan's arm with his sharpened cards. "This borders on the sadistic," she said shortly. "Behave yourself."

Setzer's brief look of hope at the opening for dealmaking faded into a snort as Terra casually summoned a small but white-hot fireball, letting it crackle just above her palm. "There are few enough opportunities for entertainment on this trip," he sighed. "And he spends so much time clinging to pipes in the engine room I can't really tell the difference anyway."

Locke poked at Cyan's inert form too, but just with his fingers, and like he was looking for something specific. When his hand disappeared in Cyan's body up to the elbow, as if the man were simply a hologram in that spot, he drew his hand back again quickly. "There's our way in," he said, rubbing at the briefly-disappeared arm with the other one. He looked to the others. "If we're going."

Celes realized they were waiting for her; in Cyan's absence she was the only remaining strategist. She frowned. "They've issued a challenge," she said. "Surely they could have closed that...portal...if they wished. Clearly they do not, which leaves the question open of what they stand to gain."

"Our spirits as well, I think," Terra mused. She ran her fingers, carefully, over that empty spot that shouldn't be empty at all, and there was the faintest shine about her fingertips. "There's three of them, after all, and Cyan is deeply grieved but still only one soul." She looked toward the others, seeing who would go.

"Well if they're inviting us, it's a trap, right?" said Locke. 

Celes nodded slowly. "However, we must rescue Cyan. And these...dream stooges...are no more bound by logic or reason than Kefka. We may be able to regard it, in a wider context, as a training exercise."

"...You have no friends at all, do you," mused Strago, from the chair he'd taken over to rest in while the others conferred. "We should help him because he needs our help. We don't need a better reason than that."

Celes' eyes narrowed. "If we do not stop Kefka, everything we have seen suggests no one else can or will. My willingness to consider the fact does not make me less Cyan's friend. It simply informs my approach to broader strategy. Of _course_ we must help Cyan. But we must also survive; we might die if we were only aiding a friend, but if we fall here the world remains in Kefka's grasp."

This got the entire group staring at her; being Celes, she simply stood still and silent until they'd gotten it out of their system. It was Terra who reached out to take Celes' hand in her own, and then turned toward Locke. "She's not saying she doesn't care about Cyan," she clarified. "Just that she takes it as a given and she has to focus on other things if we're to do this and get everyone back out safely." To Celes she said, "I think if we can find the three stooges and remove them, I can get us out if their spell doesn't automatically throw us out of Cyan's body. What else do we need to consider?"

Locke coughed, somewhere between jealous and embarrassed. "Okay. So Terra goes. That means Celes goes. Who else?"

Celes frowned down at Cyan's inert, sleeping form, vaguely grateful that at least he wasn't snoring. It wasn't something she minded, but under the circumstances she rather thought Cyan would be embarrassed. Locke wasn't wrong, but not more than four should go. The remains of the party might be needed to carry on the fight alone.

On the other hand, it was overall more wise to choose a group likely to survive the challenge at hand; Cyan really was a necessary part of any final strategy. "Locke and Strago, you are with us. Everyone else, give us seven days."

Setzer found a chair and took out a notebook and pencil. "I'll say three gets you five that we never see any of them again," he offered. "Any takers?"

Celes sighed. "You are supposed to wait until after we have set out to make book, Setzer." 

Locke couldn't help a quiet chuckle about it as he went to stand by Celes and Terra. Strago levered himself up with his staff and nodded approval as he walked over to join them as well.

"We'll bring Cyan back," he said firmly.

"You'd better come back, old man, or I'll stick Cyan full of needles!" snapped Relm.

Edgar quietly put a hand on Relm's shoulder. "Let's...have a quiet talk in the hallway," he suggested.

Celes decided matters were as far in hand as they were going to be. She looked at her chosen team, and nodded to them. She took Terra's hand, who took Strago's, who took Locke's, and the four of them...

_...fell..._

into Cyan's dreams.


End file.
